Steering Committee Advances Landscape Conservation Planning and Design in the Appalachians
At the 2015 Appalachian LCC Steering Committee meeting, resource managers and wildlife administrators from throughout the region formally designated priority ecosystems and associated resources to focus the LCC’s landscape conservation efforts.
The Steering Committee met at the National Conservation Training Center on July 14-15, to also hear the Cooperative’s accomplishments over the last year and advance its landscape planning initiative.
Nearly 50 representatives of federal and state agencies, NGOs, and regional partnerships attended the meeting. Key decisions included:
- Formally designating a list of priority ecosystems and associated resources that will refine the second phase of the conservation planning and landscape design modeling by Clemson University. The second phase will also integrate aquatic and cultural resource components into the design work.
- Funding the second phase of research to evaluate environmental benefits and risks across the Appalachian LCC conducted by the Forest Service Southern Research Station;
- Supporting a research project to develop an approach - based on work in Pennsylvania - to identify and map valued cultural resources in relationship to prioritized ecological resources;
- Directing staff time to support the implementation of a landscape conservation design partnership across the entire Tennessee River Basin. Steering Committee member state representatives supported the proposal to make a focused effort in this geography, which also received strong endorsement from other members outside the geography as an important learning opportunity and model that can be applied to other strategic locations as the LCC and the partnership matures;
- Directing staff time to support workshops that deliver science information and research products such as the Assessing Future Energy Development and Riparian Restoration Decision Support Tools to public and key stakeholders; and
- Continue the facilitation of discussions around the energy development tool and data with partners and industry.
All notes, presentations, and handout materials from the meeting are found at: http://applcc.org/july-13-15-2015-appalachian-lcc-steering-committee-meeting
The next face-to-face meeting of the Steering Committee will take place in April, 2016. Several Steering Committee calls will take place prior to the meeting to discuss progress in funding new projects and supporting ongoing initiatives.
